Flesh and Blood! Flesh and Blood!

“Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” (John 6:53)

You’d be forgiven for thinking that I’ve been avoiding this ‘bread of life’ discourse from John’s Gospel in my weekly reflections. This is the fourth week in a row that we’ve had sections of it in our set readings, yet during all that time I’ve been focused exclusively on the tales of Biblical King David.

The life of David is an engaging story, and it raises significant questions about family and relationships. Even so, while David has been battling with his enemies, with himself, and with God, Jesus has been creating trouble on the shores of Galilee and it’s time we shifted focus.

What started as an exuberant gathering of Jesus’ fanbase became increasingly tense. The crowd were excited by the miracles, but they found Jesus’ teaching hard to take. When Jesus then claimed to be ‘the bread of life’, many thought he’d gone too far.

“How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”, they asked (John 6:52). It’s an understandable question, yet Jesus, instead of lightening the mood and saying, “Hey, I’m speaking in metaphors”, doubled down. “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you!” (John 6:53)

A lot of people have debated this text over the last 2,000 years, and it should come as no surprise that many have seen in this language of the flesh and blood of Jesus a reference to the Eucharist. The problem with this interpretation is that John’s Gospel doesn’t include any account of the Eucharist.

There is no sharing of bread and wine at the Last Supper in John’s Gospel. Of course, some argue that John didn’t bother repeating such a well-known story and said enough about it indirectly here. Even so, I wonder whether Jesus would have insisted with these people that they take part in a sacrament that, at that stage, hadn’t been invented. Is there another way of understanding Jesus here?

If you’re familiar with John’s Gospel, you know that John often depicts Jesus speaking in metaphorical language that His hearers misunderstand. When Jesus told Nicodemus, in John chapter 3, that he had to be ‘born from above’ (John 3:3). Nicodemus thought Jesus was telling him that he had to be born again. When Jesus told the Samaritan woman, in John chapter 4, that He could give her ‘living water’ (John 4:10), she thought He was referring to flowing water from some spring. Is it possible that the flesh and blood Jesus refers to here similarly means something else – something that was not obvious to Jesus’ first hearers (or to us)?

Persons far wiser than me have been pondering these questions for thousands of years, so I’m not going to offer any authoritative interpretation here as to exactly what Jesus was saying about Himself. Even so, I think it’s reasonably clear what all this flesh and blood language says about us and about our relationship with Jesus – namely, that it’s a relationship that is tangible and earthy!

For a lot of people, religion is an escape from this world into a spiritual realm. We close our eyes, and we lift our hands, and we hope to find ourselves ‘caught up into the third heaven’ as Saint Paul was (2 Corinthians 12:2). The Scriptures do speak of other dimensions where we can connect with God. Even so, the connection Jesus speaks of establishing with us here is one that takes place entirely in the flesh. Jesus wants to connect with us in our bodies – joining His body to our body, uniting His flesh and blood with our flesh and blood!

The crowd found this language offensive, and it is offensive, especially if your vision of God is of one who is immortal, invisible, pure, holy and untouchable. Jesus doesn’t seem to be any of those things, and the prospect of uniting our bodies with His body sounds messy! Even so, Jesus insists that this is where the action takes place. Jesus connects with us in our real and tangible world, in and through our bodies of flesh and blood!

Religion, as I say, can be an escape from this world. The religion of Jesus though, I would suggest, draws us deeper into this world. Discipleship is not an escape from our earthly reality. We bleed and die in this world as Jesus bled and died, and instead of rising above the troubles of this world we find Jesus draws us further down into the pain. Even so, all this happens in union with Him – with the flesh and blood of Jesus comingled with our flesh and blood!

Does that all sound a bit gross? Perhaps it is, but it’s the miracle we celebrate every week in the Eucharist – uniting our bodies with Christ’s body, “so that we may evermore dwell in Him, and He in us”.

Our Sunday Eucharist

We celebrated another wonderful Eucharist last Sunday. It was good to have Father Mark back with us in person, joining Rob Gilland and myself on the panel. We did appreciate Mark’s pre-recorded offerings over the last two months, but it was great to engage with him directly again, and to hear about his amazing travels across the UK and Europe as he and his wife celebrated their 40^th wedding anniversary. ❤️

Mark shared an amazing story with us about car-hire in Italy where (apparently) they have no expectation of the vehicle coming back in one piece! I’ll past that below as a short video, along with some more serious Biblical reflection. If you enjoy these shorts, you can see the full collection on the Sunday Eucharist Instagram page.

Please sign up to the Instagram page and share the videos, and help us grow our online congregation.

This week I’ve also divided our Bible Banter into three separate videos – one for each of the readings. I’ll attach each of them to the end of today’s missive. My primary goal here is to increase our exposure on YouTube though I’m not sure if this will work. Either way, I’m hoping that these extra videos will also be a useful resource to our regular online community.

This coming Sunday I’m looking forward to having Karyn and Andrew with me on the panel, though not Andrew Logan this time but Andrew Madry. We’ve swapped the two Andrews this month as Andrew Logan is currently in a castle in Belgium, helping to establish a university! We look forward to hearing more about that in due course.

Join us this Sunday at noon via TheSundayEucharist.com or on Facebook , YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn or Streamyard. I look forward to sharing this Eucharist with you. 😊

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What’s On?

Friday to Sunday, August 16 to 18 – @Binacrombi. Please join me
Sunday, August 18 – Our Eucharist from midday @ thesundayeucharist.com (or through Facebook , YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn or Streamyard).
Tuesday, August 20 – Boxing at The Mundine Gym in Redfern from 6.30 pm.
Friday, August 23 – Father Dave vs. Leon Irwin

You’ll have to forgive me for not scheduling more boxing sessions next week. The bout in Queensland means I won’t be in Sydney for my normal Thursday or Saturday sessions. Even so, I trust I’ll be in good enough health when I return to resume training the following Tuesday.

This bout with Leon Irwin is an important one for me. People keep reminding me that I’m 62 years old, and have probably past my peak as a professional boxer. I’m not sure about that but I do recognise that I can’t go on forever. Even so, I’ve had an offer of an Australian title fight in November. If next week’s fight goes well, I’ll be focusing on that and perhaps, by God’s Grace, these fights will do much to raise the profile of our work and help me make ends meet. Your prayers are appreciated.

In the meantime, of course, we wait with terrible anticipation the military response from Iran and Lebanon to the Israeli assassinations that took place in those countries at the end of last month. Tensions are running high throughout the region and throughout the world. Father Mark and I will continue to share key updates on www.israelandpalestine.org but it is impossible to be sure about what happens next.

I received an invitation this week to speak at a conference in Iran early next month. I said ‘no’ only because it’s on the same day as my daughter, Imogen’s, birthday, and I’ve already organised to travel to Melbourne on that day to be with her. If the date of the conference changes, I will attend, and this despite what I read in an article today, that Israel has threatened Iran with a nuclear attack!

We need to keep praying. We must not lose hope. If Christ is truly incarnated in this world through our flesh and blood, justice and peace will ultimately triumph. ❤️🙏

Your brother in the Good Fight,